Category Archives: Marriage & Family

Associated Press: “They sued the state of Ohio and U.S. government after hours-long phone calls and months of trying to get a family plan through the federal insurance marketplace. Their attorney said Friday the couple obtained a family policy this week after going through the federal website, HealthCare.gov. Their plan takes effect in April.”

PoliticMO: “Conservative activist Kerry Messer, president of the Missouri Family Network, filed with a court seeking an immediate injunction against Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon Wednesday over an executive order allowing gay couples married in other states to file joint tax returns in the state.” | The Religion Clause blog provides helpful background information and links here.

Byron York at The Washington Examiner: “Russell Moore, the 42-year-old president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, is a star in cultural conservative circles. Speaking at a conference of journalists organized by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Moore, a strong supporter of traditional marriage, was asked what his ideal presidential candidate would say about the issue.”

Ars Technica: “The internal response began this morning with two tweets from Mozilla Open Badges project lead Chris McAvoy. ‘I love @mozilla but I’m disappointed this week,’ McAvoy said, referring to the controversial decision to appoint Eich as CEO after he had donated thousands to both California’s Proposition 8 and political candidates who supported it.”

WTSP: “In order to get a divorce in Massachusetts, the couple has been told they must return to that state and live there for a year. But the attorneys for the two women contend one reason their request should be granted in Florida is because the state’s ban on same-sex marriage doesn’t specifically prohibit divorce.”

Lincoln Journal Star: “A Raymond woman who married her longtime, same-sex partner in Iowa in 2009 is now petitioning the Nebraska Supreme Court to be allowed to divorce. The issue of same-sex divorce has only recently begun to crop up. A total of 17 states now recognize same-sex marriage, but Nebraska is not one of them.”

Missourinet: “Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis) has filed HJR 85, a proposed constitutional amendment that would ask voters to add language saying that a marriage may exist between a man and a woman and a same-sex couple.”

David Harsanyi at National Review: “Yes, 14 states spend ‘nearly $1 billion’ of taxpayer tuition money on ‘hundreds of religious schools’ that teach kids the earth is less than 10,000 years old. This would be more troubling if we didn’t spend hundreds of billions every year not teaching millions of kids how to read. Voucher programs offer a wide variety of choices for parents, unlike the failing schools that so many kids are trapped in.”

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog: “A federal appeals court ruling that had appeared to make it harder for states to justify a ban on same-sex marriage, by raising the constitutional barrier to laws based on sexual orientation, may now be given a new look. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disclosed Thursday that one or more of its judges have sought to review the issue further, so the court called for new legal briefs.” | The order is here.

Associated Press: “A bill is advancing through the Florida Legislature that prohibits minors 15 or younger from being able to get permission to marry. If approved Florida would join 13 other states that totally ban marriage for someone under 16.” | HB 1279 “Marriage of Minors”

Kay Hymowitz at Family Studies: “A new paper by Sheila Kennedy and Steven Ruggles appearing in the most recent issue of the journal Demography not only battles with the numbers, it kicks them and much of the accepted wisdom about divorce rates out of the house. Divorce has not gone down, they argue compellingly: it has risen to record highs.”

Detroit Free Press: “The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday extended a stay on last week’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman that struck down the Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage.” | The Order is here.

Diana Samuels at The Times-Picayune: “The ordinance says that only a ‘single family’ may rent homes in A-1 zoning districts, the most common residential designation in Baton Rouge. The law defines family as ‘an individual or two or more persons who are related by blood, marriage or legal adoption.’ It restricts more than two unrelated people from renting a home together, and, if the owner of the property lives in the home, prohibits more than four unrelated people from living there. . . . It raises questions, for example, about the effect on gay and lesbian residents. A gay couple with a foster child wouldn’t be allowed to rent a home together under the law.”

RNS: “Christian relief organization World Vision has announced that it will no longer define marriage as between a man and a woman in its employee conduct manual, a groundbreaking change for an evangelical institution, a signal that gay marriage continues to affect religious organizations.” | Russell D. Moore: On World Vision and the Gospel | Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition: World Vision and Why We Grieve For the Children

Heritage: “Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation today requiring the state to come up with its own academic standards, making Indiana the latest state to pull its support for the national education standards known as Common Core.”

R. R. Reno at First Things: “In sum: in America today the rich have the money and the social capital. They’ve got all the good jobs and the stable marriages that allow them to pass on those advantages to their children. This inequality is so extreme, that even the poor people who get and stay married are getting ground down. Sixty-five percent of rich white Americans self-report that they have happy marriages. Slightly more than 30 percent of poor Americans say the same. Again, that reflects a stark divergence as compared to earlier decades—another growing inequality.”

Detroit Free Press: “Almost 19 years ago — long before most Michiganders could imagine a day when gay and lesbian couples would enjoy the right to marry and raise children together — U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman discovered that a social revolution was breaking out in his own chambers.”

Detroit Free Press: “That’s the predicament roughly 100 couples are in following an order late Saturday from the U.S. Sixth Court of Appeals, which issued a temporary stay of a lower court ruling that declared Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. The order didn’t come down until late in the day — well after roughly 300 same-sex marriage licenses had been handed out across Michigan.”

AZ Daily Sun: “Arizona’s controversial voucher-like system of using state funds to send children to private and parochial schools is legal, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday. Without comment, the high court refused to disturb a Court of Appeals decision which said the program, officially dubbed ‘empowerment scholarship accounts,’ does not run afoul of a state constitutional provision that bars public funds from being used to subsidize private and parochial schools.”

Russell Shaw at Catholic World Report: “That many Catholics, especially in Europe and North America, disagree with the Church on issues like birth control and remarriage after divorce is hardly news. What needs to be recognized, and usually isn’t, is that this disagreement has a context: the ongoing breakdown of marriage in Western society that affects Catholics along with everyone else.”

Associated Press: “The House passed the measure 112-36 on March 13 before the Legislature began a weeklong break. The amendment states that parents have a right to make decisions involving the discipline, education, religious instruction, medical care, housing and ‘general well-being’ of their children.”

The Detroit News: “A federal court ruling on whether the state’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional could come as early as Thursday, say observers of the case. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman is weighing the legal claims of a lawsuit filed by Hazel Park nurses April DeBoer, 42, and Jayne Rowse, 49, who are living as a couple and raising three special needs children they adopted as individuals.”

The Oregonian: “At this point, all of the parties in the case are telling McShane that Oregon’s ban violates the federal equal protection rights of same-sex couples. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has tracked same-sex marriage cases nationally, said that means there’s nobody with the legal standing to appeal McShane’s ruling if he strikes down Oregon’s prohibition on gay marriages. . . . Tim Nashif, a board member of the Oregon Family Council, one of the leading groups opposing same-sex marriage in the state, said a county clerk would ‘probably have the best chance of intervening and getting into the case.’”

Huffington Post: “Conway sat down with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, explaining that when the Kentucky and U.S. constitutions ‘were in conflict,’ he had to act in favor of the U.S. Constitution as ‘the ultimate law of the land.’ ‘I felt like that from a fiscal responsibility standpoint, I didn’t need to be wasting taxpayer resources in a lawsuit that we weren’t going to win or in an appeal that we weren’t going to win,’ Conway said. ‘For the sake of my daughter’s view on my public service in the future, I wanted to be on the right side of history.’”

The Observer: “On Monday evening, the Tocqueville Program, the Institute for Church Life, the Gender Relations Center and the Center for Ethics and Culture sponsored a panel discussion entitled ‘Marriage, the Church, and the Common Good: Philosophical, Pastoral, and Social Reflections.’ The panel featured Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, Ron Belgau and Jennifer Roback Morse, who discussed evolving views on sexuality and challenges people face in modern marriages.”

Christopher White at The Federalist: “How then are the children from such arrangements faring? Sally claims they’re beautiful, healthy, and happy. And I sincerely hope that they are. But a major study released in June 2013 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry that examined 30 surrogacy families evidences that surrogate children, while not suffering from psychological disorders, show elevated levels of adjustment difficulties. Moreover, the lack of a ‘gestational connection’ to their biological mother or father may place children at increased psychological risk.”

Heritage: “Cuccinelli, who narrowly lost the Virginia governor’s race in November, joined two other legal experts at a Heritage event examining what they regard as a disturbing trend: the willingness of state attorneys general to heed U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s advice – and example – by refusing for political reasons to enforce or defend laws with which they disagree. The Friday afternoon event, called ‘Dereliction of Duty,’ also featured Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, and Ed Whelan, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center.”

AL.com: “Huntsville attorney Patrick Hill said he sent a certified letter to Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange today notifying the AG’s office that he intends to challenge the dismissal of the divorce petition. Hill said his efforts are aimed at making sure his client can exercise her rights to petition the circuit court for a divorce.”

BuzzFeed Politics: “A federal judge in Tennessee Friday ordered state officials to recognize the marriages of three same-sex couples during the consideration of their lawsuit challenging the validity of the state’s ban on recognizing such marriages.” | How Appealing has a link to the ruling.

WYFF: “A lawsuit filed in Greenville this week could challenge the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Cathy Swicegood, of Mauldin, is seeking a divorce from her female partner of 13 years. But because Swicegood was never legally married, she has no legal protections under South Carolina law . . . ‘We are seeking the courts to issue an order that says both South Carolina laws that ban same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, not only under the South Carolina constitution, but more importantly under the United States constitution,’ he said.”

Denny Burk: “I have said it before, and I will say it again. 2012 was the last time the GOP will ever run a presidential candidate who opposes gay marriage at the level of public policy. Those days are behind us. It is only a matter of time—perhaps a very short time—before a majority of the GOP finds itself in full support of the right of gay people to wed.”

Associated Press: “Gov. Steve Beshear on Thursday signed a $100,000 contract with a private law firm to represent him in appealing a judge’s order for Kentucky to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries. Beshear announced the deal with the 11-member Ashland firm of VanAntwerp, Monge, Jones, Edwards & McCann, which also has an office in Frankfort.”

ACLU Press Release: “On Thursday, March 13th 2014, the ACLU announced a lawsuit filed in federal court on behalf of eight same-sex couples and SAVE, an LGBT rights organization based in South Florida, challenging the state of Florida’s refusal to recognize their marriages, which were performed in other states and recognized by the federal government.”

W. Bradford Wilcox at First Things: “There is another reason the Pope and his Church should not simply accommodate this wave: It has taken a devastating toll on the ‘least of these’—especially children and the poor. In the United States, for instance, a recent study of economic mobility for poor children in communities across the nation by Harvard economist Raj Chetty found that “the strongest and most robust predictor [of mobility] is the fraction of children with single parents.” In other words, poor children in the U.S. are much more likely to be trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty if they grow up in communities without strong two-parent families.”

NPR: “‘It would mean that it would become almost impossible to justify any laws that negatively affect gays and lesbians,’ Larson says. ‘And the primary ones, of course, would be laws restricting same-sex marriage.’ . . . But for now, because the drugmaker Abbott Laboratories didn’t challenge the 9th Circuit ruling last week, the application of heightened scrutiny is the law of the land in the nine Western states covered by that court.

Arizona Daily Star: “Unable to kill outright the Common Core program, state senators now are moving to let schools opt out of the national education standards. On a voice vote Wednesday, the Senate approved SB 1395 and SB 1396. While the wording and methodology are different, both essentially allow local school board and charter school operators to decide they do not want to implement the standards.”

Notre Dame News: “A panel discussion on the role of the Catholic Church in the cultural and political debate about marriage will take place at 7 p.m. Monday (March 17) in DeBartolo Hall, Room 101, on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.”

Pew Research Center: “Today, 61% of Republicans and Republican leaners under 30 favor same-sex marriage while just 35% oppose it. By contrast, just 27% of Republicans ages 50 and older favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry.”

New York Times: “The head bishop of the United Methodist Church in New York on Monday committed to ending church trials in his region for ministers who perform same sex-marriages, essentially freeing them to conduct a ceremony still prohibited under his denomination’s laws.”

Family Studies: “At the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), an Ottawa-based social policy think tank, we wanted to explore the relationship between marriage and income. Census data shows that marriage has declined for decades. We wondered if the decline occurred equally across income levels. Our recent report, The Marriage Gap between Rich and Poor Canadians, offers a big-picture examination of marriage and income.”

Dennis Di Mauro at First Things: “While Robinson served as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, he surprisingly uses far more secular arguments than theological ones. The religious ones he does use are often speculative. Robinson explores the commonly used verses proscribing homosexual sex by referencing Daniel Helminiak’s 1994 book, What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality. Using Helminiak’s work, he proceeds to reinterpret the verses in Leviticus 18 and 20, Genesis 19, Judges 19, Romans, 1 Cor. 6, and 1 Tim 1. His conclusion? None of these verses deal with homosexuality. They are dismissed as merely divine proscriptions against violence, prostitution, idolatry, or some other sin, or as anthropological remnants of an outdated and bigoted age.”

Walter Weber at Jurist: “There is now another legal goblin on the block: the homosexual distortion factor. The Supreme Court has again and again shown that its obsession with affirming ‘the dignity and status’ of homosexual and lesbian unions will trump law and logic.”

Mike Gonzalez at Heritage: “Search President Obama’s speech to minority youths last Thursday for the word ‘marriage,’ and you will find just one reference, and in a throwaway line at that. There are nine references to ‘men of color’ and three to the minimum wage, but none at all to out-of-wedlock birth rates. There are also zero appeals for more two-parent families, not even of the ‘LGBT’ variety, the only one liberals seem to champion these days.”

The Atlantic: “‘Whatever form marriage and family comes in, as long as it’s about love and commitment, that’s okay,’ Brady said. ‘Where no one’s a victim. Where no one’s being compelled to be in it. Consenting adults who love each other should be able to express that in a family setting.’”

The Weekly Standard: “The Tax Policy Center, a project of the liberal-leaning Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, released a new analysis this week of Senator Mike Lee’s family-friendly tax reform plan. According to TPC, the Utah Republican’s plan would reduce federal revenues by $2.4 trillion over 10 years, a much larger reduction than suggested by initial estimates.”

Daily Commercial: “Federal District Judge William Terrell Hodges on Thursday denied the Lake County School District’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit to allow a gay-straight alliance (GSA) to meet at Carver Middle School. Hodges also denied the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida’s motion for a preliminary injunction to allow the GSA to meet until the matter can be settled in court.”

Shorewood Now: “Under the guidelines, drafted by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards and tweaked by the district’s policy committee, Shorewood formalizes definitions of transgender students and students who don’t conform to gender stereotypes. Complaints of discrimination, harassment, or bullying of those students will now be handled in the same way as other complaints.”

Washington Times: “Transgender-rights supporters in Maryland are hoping that this will be the year they get a nondiscrimination law enacted to safeguard their rights in society. But a provision involving ‘public accommodations’ — including rest rooms, showers, lockers and dressing rooms — has drawn an outcry.”

CBS Miami: “If an expansion of a Florida program that helps low-income children attend private schools, many of them religious, gets a thumbs up, it could mean some restrictions on eligibility could be removed.”

LifeSiteNews: “The organizers of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade have rescinded their controversial invitation to a homosexual advocacy group, saying they believe the group’s application was a ‘ploy’ made under ‘false pretenses.’”

Louis Markos at The Imaginative Conservative: “I would propose a third cause for why so many Bible-believing Christians are embracing, or at least not openly opposing, the eventual legalization of marriage between people of the same sex. They are doing so because the ground has been carefully laid and watered by a subtle but pervasive change in our cultural perceptions of men and women. Rather than identify, nurture, and celebrate masculinity and femininity as distinct but complementary God-given realities, our culture has been coaxed—by forces within the public school system, the media, the academy, and (alas) the seminary—to view boys and girls, men and women, husbands and wives as ultimately interchangeable.”

Sasha Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: “On February 17, a North Carolina state trial judge, Robert Hobgood, struck down North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships program (i.e. school vouchers) as violating the North Carolina Constitution.”

Washington Post: “Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll in which a large majority also said businesses should not be able to deny serving gays for religious reasons. Fifty percent say the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection gives gays the right to marry, while 41 percent say it does not.”

Associated Press: “Four gay couples and a gay rights advocacy group have sued Gov. Matt Mead and other officials in an attempt to get Wyoming to recognize gay marriage. They filed the suit Wednesday in Laramie County District Court.”

Reason: “After Heyburn’s order was issued Reason asked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to comment on the order. Paul’s response below: ‘I believe in the historic and religious definition of marriage. I also believe this power belongs to the states and the people, not the federal government. It is illegitimate for the federal courts to intrude here.’”

Chicago Tribune: “Marriage licenses for same-sex couples will not be issued in Kane County before June 1, despite urging by the state’s attorney general on Tuesday for clerks statewide to issue licenses earlier, the county clerk said today.”

Wisconsin State Journal: “Citing rulings in a spate of similar lawsuits across the country, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb on Tuesday declined to issue a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage.”

Associated Press: “The Colorado Democrat has been a vocal backer of gay rights but generally stopped short of formally endorsing same-sex marriage. However, on Monday he provided a statement in support of a gay rights group that kicked off a campaign to bring gay marriage to Colorado.”

Reuters: “Republicans from Western states are expected on Tuesday to urge a U.S. appeals court to rule state bans on gay marriage unconstitutional, an aide said, citing shifts in the cultural standpoints of some conservatives in a broad national debate.”

TIME: “Calling laws against same-sex marriage the last vestige of widespread discrimination in America, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway told TIME Tuesday he refused to continue defending his state’s ban on gay marriage because he feared he’d regret it for the rest of his life. ‘I know where history is going on this,’ he said. ‘I know what was in my heart.’”